Bruin News
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2017
PAGE 5
Pearson wins national award for column special to The Bear Facts Sophomore Joe Pearson took second place for Sports Commentary in the 2017 Gold Circle Awards sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the international student press association at Columbia University in New York. Pearson’s winning column about Coach Gerard McCall’s path to coaching baseball was among 7,093 print news and magazine entries from pub-
lications produced by students at colleges, universities and secondary schools throughout the United States and abroad who follow the American JOE education plan. PEARSON “We are so proud of Joe Pearson,” said Principal Dena Kinsey. “To earn a second place award on the national level and from among more than 7,000 entries is a huge honor and
achievement. Joe is a talented writer and a great example of the kinds of students we have at St. Joe.” Pearson serves as sports editor of The DENA Bear Facts, St. JoKINSEY seph’s award-winning, student-edited newspaper. Last spring, Pearson received the Orley Hood Award for Excellence in High School Sports Journalism for his work writing sports columns for The
Bear Facts. The Bear Facts is part of St. Joe’s award-winning high school journalism programs. Journalism students produce a high school newspaper, The Bear Facts, six to eight times a year; a high school yearbook, The Shield, every fall; and a video newscast, Bruin News Now, every Friday. Journalism students also produce Bruin Sports Radio, a weekly threehour radio show in which they broadcast all home-and-away football games and home basketball games live over
the internet and WJXC Jackson, Mississippi Catholic Radio. Students also coordinate and oversee live video streaming of football games on Bruin TV. Pearson’s winning column took an in-depth look at how St. Joe’s baseball coach Gerard McCall wound his way from high school baseball, into the minor leagues and then into coaching high school ball at St. Joe. Joe Pearson’s award-winning sports column is reprinted below.
Gerard McCall’s unlikely path to coaching baseball This sports column originally appeared in the Feb. 9, 2017, edition of The Bear Facts. It was awarded second place in the 2017 Gold Circle Awards sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
I
t was over. Gerard McCall never thought the day would come. But it did. After one year with the Arizona White Sox minor league baseball team, the organization cut him. McCall sat alone on the edge of a bed in a roadside motel in Scottsdale, Ariz. A bag with his catcher’s mask, catcher’s mitt and a year of memories leaned against the wall. And he cried. “I thought I had a second chance,” McCall remembered. “I absolutely did everything I could possibly do from sun-up to sun-down.” That was 2000. Today in 2017, McCall, now 37, is the head varsity baseball coach for the Saint Joseph Bruins. He no longer stoops behind the batter every game. He no longer stands in the batter’s box, bat in hand. Instead, he coaches a talented high school team that just missed playing for the state championship in 2016, a team that this year should be just as strong if not better than the year before. And while McCall is proud to be in his third year as head coach, the road to Saint Joseph was not entirely
smooth.
to play for the Arizona White Sox. YOUTH DREAMS His first year was a success. McCall McCall’s story began was the best-hitting in the early 1990s catcher on his team, when he played in the batting .287. At the GERARD JOE recreational league same time, he was a MCCALL PEARSON in his hometown of young, impressionable Meridian. He was teenager far away from always talented, and would play with his family and constantly facing the children – often his cousins – who threat of being cut at any moment. were older than he was, “The worst part was you see a whole Growing up, sports was everything. lot of politics,” McCall said. “You see The competition motivated him. guys getting moved up for no reason. McCall excelled in baseball, basketball It’s like you do the best you can, and and football. He was so talented you don’t get noticed.” that he started on the Meridian High School varsity baseball team as an BEST SHAPE eighth grader. And as he found success, word of McCall worked hard and was in the his talent quickly reached major league best physical shape of his life. And scouts. When McCall graduated in while nothing he did sent him to the 1998, the Chicago White Sox drafted majors, he found strength in the one him out of high school in the 13th person who had been there with him round. The team then sent the 18-year- since the beginning: his mother. old 1,000 miles away from his family “Probably my biggest fan and my biggest motivation was my mom. She was the most constant. And she helped Probably my not just in athletics, but also in the biggest fan and my classroom when I was in school.” A year after he was cut by the biggest motivation was Arizona White Sox, McCall found a my mom.” spot on the Jackson Senators minor league team – which played at Smith Wills Stadium and offered his family – Gerard McCall, and friends a chance to see him play. 2005, he had enough. He retired Bruin baseball coach By from professional play.
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“It got to the point where it wasn’t what I looked forward to,” McCall said. “I just didn’t see myself continuing on the same path. I wanted to do some other things in my life, like start a family. So, I was just ready to move on.” He turned to coaching and landed a spot as an assistant with the Saint Andrew’s Episcopal High School varsity team, where he worked 20022014. When the baseball coaching job opened at Saint Joseph, McCall jumped on board. And that’s when I first met him.
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He wants us to stay motivated and keep the goal in sight of what we’re trying to do: To win the state championship.” – Andrew Sanli, Bruin catcher
BRUIN EXPERIENCE McCall had just taken over the program and was hosting a baseball camp at Saint Joseph in July 2013 for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. An avid baseball fan and player, I jumped at the chance. Even though the camp didn’t start until 8 a.m., my dad dropped me off early every day – giving me a chance to talk with McCall before the start of camp. The sun had just risen, the aroma of freshly mown grass always filled the air and McCall, in his deep, rough, gravely voice, talked about baseball. The wisdom he shared about the game I love struck me and caught my attention. McCall knows how to command your attention. He is the kind of coach who gets the best from players. He is the kind of coach players will go an extra mile to please.
Andrew Sanli, a catcher on the team, agreed: “He wants us to stay motivated and keep the goal in sight of what we’re trying to do: To win the state championship.” At Saint Joseph, McCall has led the Bruins to two successful seasons in a row, last year advancing to the semifinals of the District 2A playoffs and almost – almost – reaching the state championship. Now, McCall watches games from the 3rd base coach position, urging his players to success. Every now and then, his thoughts return to his own experiences with professional baseball. And when he thinks back to that fateful day when he sat on the bed in Scottsdale, Ariz., he no longer cries. Why? Without that experience, he wouldn’t be where he is today.
THE GREAT AMERICAN SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 2017 A group of St. Joe students traveled to Nashville in August to personally witness the Great American Eclipse. As part of the once-ina-lifetime event, Mr. John Banks, better known as “Super B,” established an essay contest for St. Joe students.
Here, The Bear Facts prints the two winning essays: Junior Garret Grove, who took first place among 10th-12th grade students, and Bianca McCarty, who took first among seventh-ninth grade students.
Garret Grove essay: Solar eclipses over the ages
Bianca McCarty essay: Eclipses in modern literature
The Saint Joseph Student Body had experience with the Solar Eclipse in some shape, form or fashion on August 21, 2017. Some students traveled on a charter bus up to Nashville, Tennessee to view an Eclipse whose path of ToGARRET tality stretched across the United GROVE States. Others like myself stayed on Campus and safely viewed the Solar Eclipse during E period outside that Afternoon. This event, which had peaked my family and my own interest, seemed to be only but a blur. This solar eclipse obviously had a lot of hype to it. For instance, News outlets such as CNN, CBS, and NBC especially talked about the Solar Eclipse. In ancient times, however, this wasn’t the case. People didn’t have this sense of interest and awe for these wonders of Nature in ancient times as we do now. In fact, if something was keeping people up at night, it might have had something to do with Solar Eclipses. For example, the ancient Chinese thought that a dragon or demon was eating the sun. They banged pots and made a loud commotion in an attempt to drive it out. Eclipse is actually a Greek word that means ‘abandonment.’ (‘Wanner, Noel-Dragon’). But as people have gotten older and wiser, people in multiple ways came to embrace this sort of thing happening. Which now includes traveling in a charter bus up to Nashville to see one unfold. Even Writers -especially the few who orchestrate these types of stories- are not interested in changing the books to talk about some lowly lunar eclipse happening, either . (‘Eclipse, books’).
The Eclipse -an essay by American author James Fenimore Cooper- documents a life-changing experience that occurred as a result of an early 19th century solar eclipse during his youth. (‘Literature’). A reference to a Solar Eclipse is also present in Act 5 of Othello, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. (‘No Fear Shakespeare’). In this tragedy, Othello considered the Solar Eclipse as horrifying and unbearable. Solar Eclipses even have religious importance in spiritual writings such as the Bible. A Solar Eclipse that happened on June 15, 763 B.C. in Assyria is associated with the events in the book of Amos 8:9. God announced that ‘the Sun [will] go down at noon, and darken the Earth in broad daylight’. (‘Roşu, Constantin, Eclipses in History’). This undoubtedly, terrified some people. Admittedly this was my first Solar eclipse, but that’s because the last total solar eclipse viewable from the US occurred roughly four decades ago back in 1979. I remember last month trying to look at the solar eclipse through a phone camera taped to a shoe box. It didn’t quite work because I needed some special filter paper to cover the camera lens. I just borrowed somebody’s solar eclipse glasses to see this work of nature unfold instead. When a solar eclipse does occur, people -including myself- tend to take notice even from 402 miles away from the path of Totality. And these works of nature sticks with us. We write about them. We talk about them. Yet solar eclipses are more reserved and quiet than lunar eclipses or many other natural phenomena. When one does happen again in 2024, I, along with the rest of the world will be waiting and watching, just not in the same manner the ancient Chinese were.
Even in modern times, when the scientific explanations for solar eclipses are known across the planet, eclipses still capture the attention of the media in many different forms. In the past eclipses were often thought to be BIANCA bad omens. The Aztecs believed McCARTY that if an eclipse and an earthquake occurred on the date 4 Ollin, the world would end. Though eclipses were largely feared among ancient societies, not all civilizations had dooms-day mythology behind the events. The Tlingit tribes of North America believed that this was the Sun and Moon having more children. Today most of society sees solar eclipses as marvels of science rather than spiritual or supernatural events. Literature aimed at children often uses the rarity of an eclipse as a premise for their stories. Even today, some children’s literature describes the event as an omen. “There is a darkness coming that not even Starclan can prevent.” -Erin Hunter, Eclipse. This particular quote is speaking about the eclipse that occurs half-way through the book. The eclipse was used as a plot device to move the story forward. Though is current times, we understand eclipses, that doesn't mean that they aren't great premises for literature. Annie Dillard published Total Eclipse in 1982. The story is a narrative about the total eclipse of February 26, 1979. “That is when there were
screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover.” Dillard describes the fear that accompanies eclipses. Though she was aware what was happening, her heart still pounded in her chest. She shows that understanding something doesn't always diminish the wonder or fear of it. The rest of the school was excited for the eclipse, but the biggest emotion I felt was fear. I’d been told by my mother, “Not to be stupid and look at the eclipse, because then she’d have to drive all the way to Jackson so I could go to blind school.” While I was afraid of my mother’s wrath, I was most afraid of loosing my sight. I am indescribably afraid of the dark, so the fear of living without sight for the rest of my life scared me more than the eclipse intrigued me. When I was able to look through the eclipse glasses with shaking hands, the most I could see was a small gold crescent. Admittedly, I was underwhelmed. Then I thought, “How amazing is it that this can even happen?” Then I was truly amazed. Modern literature surrounding eclipses is quite varied. Some stories express confusion and horror at the disappearance of our beloved sun. Others describe the awe and the amazement that you cannot understand if you haven't seen one. The main purpose of literature is to express feelings. No one person sees an eclipse the same way. This variation in views is the reason there are so many types of literature out there and the reason there is much media surrounding eclipses.
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